


Tomorrow Will Be Kinder

by wildfrancium



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cancer, Developing Relationship, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Major Illness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-12
Updated: 2013-11-12
Packaged: 2018-01-01 07:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1041803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildfrancium/pseuds/wildfrancium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael Jones is a single father whose daughter is battling Leukemia. Midst the chaos and sadness he finds Dr. Free who slowly becomes the life saver that keeps Michael from drowning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tomorrow Will Be Kinder

**Author's Note:**

> Just wanted to note that the song Tomorrow Will Be Kinder by the Secret Sisters was a HUGE inspiration for this story and I hope you all enjoy!

Michael rubbed his forehead trying to fend off the oncoming headache. The room was dim and he could hear the rain on the window. Hannah was a heavy weight in his lap curled up against his chest. Her machine beeped loudly in the quiet room. He was glad she’d fallen asleep. He rubbed her back and tucked the blankets tighter around her. She was still losing weight.

“Hey,” Ray said entering the room as quietly as he could. He took off his coat setting it on the chair in the corner. “You look like hell,” he said with a small smile. Michael didn’t have the energy to laugh.

“Chemo was rough today. They’d got her on IVs to keep her hydrated,” Michael informed him. Ray nodded and picked up the sleeping five year old so that Michael could get up.

“Daddy?” Hannah murmured not opening her eyes.

“Hey baby girl Ray’s here right now. I’ll be back soon,” Michael said kissing her forehead.

“Get some sleep,” she told him. “Everyone says you’re tired.” She nuzzled against Ray who gave Michael an apologetic smile. Michael put on his coat.

“Do you want me to bring you anything?” he asked Hannah. She was sound asleep though.

“We will be fine,” Ray reassured Michael nodding towards the door. “The sooner you leave the sooner you’ll be back.”

The hall way was too bright and it hurt Michael’s eyes. He walked quickly towards the elevators determined to get out before he came up with an excuse to go back to her room. It was the same every day though. Every day since September. He was glad his friends were still willing to take time out of their days and nights to be with her.

Gavin sat in the main lobby where he always waited for Michael when he had time to go home. He smiled and stood when he saw Michael. Michael went up to him and rested his head on Gavin’s shoulder.

“Let’s just go,” Michael said before Gavin could say anything. He nodded and they headed out to Michael’s car.

==============================================================================

 

Even though it was the end of November, part of Michael was still stuck in September. Hannah was starting kindergarten. Her curly red hair had been in pigtails and she wore her brand new red converse. And she loved kindergarten.

But then he started noticing how easily she was bruising. She’d come home covered in bruises. One time the teacher called saying she was bleeding a lot from a cut she had gotten when she fell on the pavement. All she wanted to do was sit on the couch when she came home. She said she was tired. When she started saying her stomach really hurt he’d taken her to the doctor.

Her pediatrician, Dr. Griffon Ramsey, after hearing all the symptoms and seeing that Hannah’s liver was swollen, had referred Michael to her husband who was a pediatric oncologist. Michael had almost lost it right there. She explained that she wanted Hannah to be thoroughly checked out. She explained that kindergartners got sick a lot at the beginning of the year, that it was common. But she didn’t want to risk it because if it was leukemia then her immune system would start to fail and she’d become even more sick.

Michael left the doctor’s office holding Hannah tight. As he was buckling her into her booster seat she asked if she was going to school now. Michael said there was no school that day and he took her home to watch all her favorite movies.

That night he called his friend Ray who he’d known since high school and begged him to come over. Hannah was asleep by then.

Michael cried for hours.

 

The hospital was soon their new home. Hannah was set up with an aggressive chemotherapy treatment plan. Michael was swamped with paperwork along with appealing to the hospital board for a grant to pay for the treatment. He was a single parent who worked daily as an electrician.

Michael’s friends were his lifesavers. Ray and his other friend Barbara would come to the hospital when they could to allow Michael time to go home and shower or they would stop by during the day when he was working.

Barbara knitted numerous different hats for Hannah to wear as her hair fell out. Ray would spend evenings with her playing Angry Birds or Plants VS Zombies. She only wanted to play Minecraft with Michael though.

The chemo was taking its toll though. Every day she looked a little sicker, a little paler, a little thinner. It wasn’t until mid-October that she stopped asking if she could go to school tomorrow. Every night she’d tell him that she was going to be okay in the morning and they could go home and she could go back to school.

It broke his heart and it broke his heart again when she stopped too asking. He had choked up calling the school to pull her out since he didn’t know when she’d be better.  

And amidst everything Michael found Gavin.

Sometime a few weeks into everything Michael had gone down to the cafeteria to get something to eat while Hannah was taken for tests. He had been standing there staring at the bagels zoning out when Gavin walked into him.

“Sorry er Mr. Jones is it?” Gavin had said. Michael knew him as Dr. Free. He was doing some fellowship training or something under Dr. Ramsey because he wanted to be a pediatric oncologist as well.

“Just Michael,” he’d said turning back to the bagels.

“Why do all the good ones have to have raisins? I mean it ruins the entire food,” Gavin continued.

“Hannah says the same thing,” Michael said with a sad smile. The chemo made her nauseated and she didn’t have much appetite anymore.

“And you?”

“And me what? Do I like raisins? Yeah because I’m not a child,” Michael said rolling his eyes. Gavin squawked making Michael look at the man again.

“I am not a child!” Gavin insisted and Michael almost smiled. Michael watched as Gavin got a raisinless bagel. “Are you heading back to her room right away?” Michael shrugged. “Come eat with me. I’ve got like twenty minutes before I have to do anything,” Gavin told him with a smile.

 

And then suddenly it was the end of November and Gavin was a presence in his life he’d be drowning without.

He wouldn’t say they were dating. They didn’t really go on dates. They were just kind of together. It started with occasional lunches at the hospital, to casual meet ups at the bar before they went home, to Gavin curled up next to Michael in bed.

As physical as it usually got, it wasn’t about the sex. It was that Gavin was the only person he felt he could fully express himself too. They’d made the deal when they first met that they wouldn’t discuss leukemia or Hannah’s condition unless Gavin was in the room as Dr. Free. When he was with Michael he was just Gavin. And Michael needed that more than he realized.

Some days they’d run errands and Gavin would make sure Michael had food to eat at his apartment insisting that he couldn’t survive on cafeteria food and take out. Michael always asked if that was a challenge. Gavin always laughed and said he learned from experience.

Other nights Gavin came over to cuddle and play games or watch movies or listen to Michael talk.

Sometimes Gavin would be on call and they’d be rudely ripped out of sleep by Gavin always being paged. Those were the moments Michael feel his stomach churn until Gavin would lean over and kiss his forehead.

“It’s someone else, love,” Gavin would tell him. Michael knew he was lucky that it was never Hannah and he knew that just because he was with Gavin didn’t mean it would never be Hannah. But he’d fall back onto his pillows with a sigh.

He slept better with Gavin next to him.

There was one tiny favor Michael had asked of Gavin though. Hannah received chemo in the morning and midafternoon. Michael tried to go on his work breaks, and Barbara and Ray went as often as they could to be with her while she got treatment because every time she would cry and fight the doctors and cry harder. So Michael asked Gavin to make sure that she was never alone when she got chemo. Gavin had said he would do his best.

Hannah always told Michael when Gavin was with her. He’d bring books about cats for them to look at. Michael didn’t dare ask how Gavin managed to always have time to be with Hannah. Granted it wasn’t very often, maybe once or twice ever few days, but Michael knew he did it because he’d asked.

 ==========================================================================

 

The car ride to Michael’s apartment was silent. Michael liked that he didn’t have to explain Hannah’s day to Gavin. He already knew that she couldn’t even keep water down and lay limply in Michael’s arms as he worked on their Minecraft world. Michael couldn’t imagine coming home to tell someone about the bad days. It was hard enough to tell Ray or Barbara.

Michael hated walking through his front door to stare at the red converse by the door. Gavin pushed him past them.

“Did you eat dinner?” Gavin asked. Gavin was a terrible cook, but Michael was usually too exhausted to make himself dinner.

“Yeah, but I’d eat soup or something,” Michael said taking some advil and laying on the couch. Gavin went to work in the kitchen and finally appeared with two steaming bowls. They ate while Michael flipped through the channels. “Man I want Game of Thrones to come back,” Michael groaned. Gavin smiled.

“I hope Daenerys is in it more,” Gavin said.

“Yeah, yeah we all know you’ve got a thing for her,” Michael laughed.

“Will you be my Daenerys, Michael?”

“What you want me to have dragons that can kill on command? No wait I actually like the sound of that. It’d be fucking badass,” Michael grinned.

“Just don’t kill me, Michael,” Gavin warned.

“Gavin, if we lived in Westeros you wouldn’t survive the first two minutes. You’d trip and impale yourself.” Gavin pouted.

“Oh Michael,” Gavin whined. “I’d be better than that! I could be a knight,” Gavin said and Michael snorted.

“I just said you’d impale yourself and you want to give yourself a sword? You can be one of the hand maidens or something. Oh you can be Shae!” Michael exclaimed. Gavin tackled him. “Careful of the bowls, idiot!” he snapped moving the bowls before countering Gavin’s attack. “Or you could be Rose.”

“I take it back Michael. You can be Joffrey,” Gavin complained sqwaking loudly as Michael knocked him off the couch.

“At least he gets to bang Majorie,” Michael said with a smirk getting up. “Come on, I want to shower and go to sleep. I … I didn’t sleep well the last two nights,” he admitted quietly. Gavin wrapped his arms around Michael.

“I’m here now,” Gavin murmured and Michael turned to kiss him. He laced his fingers with Gavin’s and kissed him again hoping his kisses could express how grateful he was for Gavin being there. 


End file.
